Hiper Anubis Mid-Tower

Who do you run to when you need a new chassis? Antec? Thermaltake? SilverStone? Today, we are adding a new company to our personal list: Hiper. If their Anubis mid-tower had to be summed up in a single word, it would be “Quality”. Not too bad for their first showing!

Closer Look

Taking a look at the front of the case, we can see the well ventilated front door that runs almost the entire height of the chassis. With an opening for a 120mm fan at the bottom of the Anubis (strangely, a fan is not provided), the Anubis’ general layout of similar to any other case on the market right now, except for unorthodox cases such as the Mozart TX from Thermaltake.

With the front door open, it’s strange to see the fan (installed by us, not by Hiper) exposed and not on the inside of the chassis. Protected by the included fan grill, the 120mm fan should be able to breathe quite well through the front grating at the bottom of the door.

For your optical drives, the Anubis also allows the installation of up to six drives. With the front door being as it is, something like the Matrix Orbital might not be as obvious as a regular old optical drive, but rest assured the space is there. At the top of the case, there is a spot for your 3.5″ drive of choice. You do still use a 3.5″ device right?

Moving around to the side of the Anubis reveals a few more interesting bits about the case. First off is the choice of side paneling. Going with their Anubis standard 3mm thick aluminum, Hiper has windowed the entire side of the case which is not entirely out of the ordinary.

What makes this so unusual is that on top of the window is metal grilling. I can only assume that this is to prevent the inside of the case from getting completely filled with dust but without a filter on the front fan, this might not be the reasoning behind the unusual side panel. Either way, if the air flow inside the Anubis is good enough, I personally like the look of the window and grill.

Another unique feature of the Anubis is the lack of thumb screws on the side panel. Instead of this tried and true method, Hiper has employed the use of a pair of latches. With these latches on the side panel, simply press them down and pull the side off the case. It really doesn’t get much simpler than that. While I would personally like to see some way to lock the side panel on the chassis, it’s difficult to argue with the ease of use and convenience.

At the top of the case sits far and away the most unique piece of the Anubis. Running the entire length of the case are one inch tall fins. These start at the front of the case, curving with the contours of the chassis, and running all the way to the back with the only break in the fins being the top mounted 120mm exhaust fan and the I/O ports at the front of the case.

Keeping with the theme of a high quality build, Hiper as chosen to make the top mounted I/O ports of the same quality. Included on the top is a pair of USB ports, power and hard drive activity LEDs, a reset and power button as well as a microphone, headphone and audio out jacks.

One of my favorite parts about this I/O panel is the color of the LEDs. The power button LED glows a brilliant bluish purple, something a bit different from the traditional red of blue of other cases. I know, it might be a bit silly to get excited over something like that but I like it.

Moving a bit further back, we can see the rear of the Anubis as well as the other side panel. Employing the same latch system, working on the Anubis was a breeze and not having to undo thumb screws each and every time we wanting in was very much appreciated.

Examining the back of the Anubis reveals that there really isn’t anything to special about the layout of the case. The layout mimics every other ATX case ever built with the I/O shield directly by an exhaust fan (in the case of the Anubis, the exhaust fan space is for up to a 120mm fan).

Unfortunately again, Hiper saw fit to not include a fan here as well. As it stands, they have only provided one measly 120mm fan for the top of the case. For a case of this quality, it’s quite disappointing to see this and perhaps with enough pressuring, they can start including at least one more fan for those who choose this case.

/ends rant…

Underneath the I/O area there is the standard seven PCI slots as well as a pair of rubber lined holes for water tubing. This is something that we are starting to see more and more of in cases and we love this. As more cores are being built into CPUs, more people are starting to move to water to keep their temps in check. While this isn’t necessary, for many, the noise and performance of conventional convection cooling isn’t as nice as a quiet water setup.

At the top, on the back of the case, we can see the rear end of the top fins, as well as the opening for the power supply. Just under the power supply is an individually numbered tag, noting the actual number of the case.

This is put on the case at the manufacturer and gives the Anubis a little more individuality and makes each one unique. As we will see a bit later on, Hiper has also included an individually numbered key chain that matches the number on the back of the Anubis.